Welcome to the second Ark Nova tournament at WBC! In general, the tournament will use the game’s rulebook with a few modificatuions for tournament play based on input from the game’s designer.

We are playing Ark Nova in a 3-hour window. The game’s published length is 90-150 minutes. Work together to keep the game moving. Games not complete with 15 minutes remaining will end by finishing the current round of turns and one additional round, and then final scoring will occur as usual. Experienced players can often finish in under 2 hours; maintain a reasonable pace of play and we will avoid this. Get started promptly and make the short turns short so that you have more time for the tougher turns.

GETTING STARTED:

1. Find the table with the same deck color and rank as your card. So, all the 8s from the purple deck should be at one table, seated in Spades, Hearts, Diamonds, Clubs order
2. Randomly determine a start player
3. Set up the Base Conservation Project cards and association track Bonus tiles
4. In the Heats, we will select zoo maps in reverse turn order
   • Heat 1: Maps 2, 4, 6, 7, 8
   • Heat 2: Maps 1, 5, 6, 8, 9 (sub in 4 if 9 is unavailable)
   • Quarterfinal: maps randomly dealt to seats and bidding determines who sits where
   • Semifinal/Final: all players at each table will play with the same randomly-selected map
5. Each player puts their Animals card in slot 1 and randomly determines the slots for the others
6. Deal 8 Zoo cards and 2 Final Scoring cards to each player
7. Deal 6 Zoo cards face up to the display
8. All players discard 4 Zoo cards. Discard pile is face down and is not public information
9. You are ready to begin

Note: We will be using the standard interactive rules like Venom and Constriction.

DURING THE GAME

State your action out loud (i.e. “Build strength 4”) and offset the action card until complete.

Mistakes that don’t affect others should be corrected before the player’s next turn. If you play a card that benefits from other player’s actions (like Herpetologist) it is your responsibility to notice, while all players should work together to ensure proper benefits are received.

One special rule that affects players on the Silver Lake map who play the Archaeologist card—the placement spots providing 2 money do not count as placement bonuses for the purpose of the Archaeologist effect.

END OF THE GAME

Please fill out the scoresheet completely. Then turn it in to the GM. We will use the official rule change that adds 100 to each player’s score but you can fill out the scoresheet either way. If the heat winner does not intend to play in the Quarterfinal, please let the GM know.

In case of a tie, the first tiebreaker is most conservation projects supported. If still tied in a Heat, both players will get credit for a win. In Quarterfinal, Semifinal, and Final, the player later in turn order wins.

ADVANCEMENT

All heat winners will advance (assuming 64 or fewer heat winners) to the Quarterfinal. Top double heat winners may advance directly to the Semifinal. The number of byes is based on the number of single and double winners.

For the Semifinal, players will be divided into 4 groups based on total tournament performance and each game will have 1 player from each group. The Final will have 4 players, advancing the closest Semifinal second place finishers as needed.

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